This tasteless story is laid in the near future, and it pretends that Douglass Dilman, the first Negro president in history, has just entered the White House. He has arrived there by a singular coincidence of disaster: the Vice President has died of heart attack, the President and the Speaker of the House have both been crushed by a collapsing ceiling. Dilman, as President pro tem of the Senate, is next in line. In Wallace's contrived exercise, Dilman is made to contend with 1) a son who belongs to a Black Muslim-type society, 2) a daughter who tries to pass as white, 3) a Senate that tries to impeach him, and 4) a Russian premier who believes that he must secretly hate the society that rejects him. Novelist Wallace embarked on 'The Man', he reports, by taking up his note pad and pencil one evening "and writing in a frenzy whatever came to my mind until daybreak." Obviously.
Obviously. Nearly fifty years ago, what could have been more tasteless than the thought of a Negro president, even if he gets there only by accident? Mon dieu. Kudos to Wallace. Speaking of prescient art, I watched Judgment at Nuremberg last night on TCM; it started late and I kept hoping it would get boring so I could go to bed, but it was so gripping, so well-written and filmed, with a stunning all-star cast, that my heart raced all the way through. It hits home a message that will never grow stale, about personal responsibility in the face of monsters, about "the banality of evil." How an entire society turns a blind eye and good men are fatally corrupted. Riveting.
The film rekindled another great love - Spencer Tracy. What a fine, fine man. You just believe every single word he says; you want him to be your father, your uncle, your friend. Who do we watch now with that kind of down home honesty and gravitas? Freeman Morgan, that's about it, and we've exhausted the poor man with all the gravitas roles. If you have not seen this film, I urge you to do so. It will be relevant always.
More viewing: what IS going on at "Downton"? Friend Richard thinks the show "jumped the shark" on Sunday. "The minute any show has to resort to amnesia, there's trouble," he said, and I agree - the burned guy with the Canadian accent was just too bizarre. Wouldn't you know, I said to Richard, that if the gay character is the bad guy, the Canadian is an off the wall loonytune. However, I forgive them everything, because it's just so much damn fun to watch.
And ... I can never get over how spammers send out their hopeful entreaties about giving me eighteen million dollars or clicking here to stop my bank from throwing all my money away - but even in the cleverest imitation, there's always a stupid grammar error that gives them away. Wouldn't you think they'd have caught on and hired writers who know English grammar and idiom? But no. The latest was from something called "Publisher's Desk," which caught my eye, looking like a real resource for writers. And then I read more closely.
This is to inform you that the next DESK DAY will be on Monday, February 13th.
Throughout this day all publishers and/or literary agents from your country will be able to see your works, even you not being a subscriber!
Able to see my works! Even me not being a subscriber! Where do I click?
Dear Mrs. Kaplan
ReplyDeleteWe are extremely sorry for having given you a negative impression of our work. Thanks for your attentiveness.
On our team, we have competent professionals in several different languages, including English. However, due to the intense pace of our operations, it is possible that some errors may have escaped our attention. We thank you for having pointed them out to us, although we had access to this text in your blog months later. We look forward to always improving the work we do in our search for excellence.
Please notice we are indeed a real resource for writers.
As we state in our advertisements, hundreds of books have already been published in several countries thanks to our work, and many of them from authors who are not even our subscribers. There is no charge for charitable works nor humanitarian works. And with initiatives such as our DESK DAY, even those who cannot afford a subscription have the opportunity of being published. We generate dozens of contacts per day between authors, agents and publishers, in three languages; and we are committed around the clock, as can be seen in our “Testimonials” links (one per language) that shows our users’ opinions.
Thank you,
P. R. Drummond
Publishers’ Desk
An outstanding share! I've just forwarded this onto a coworker who was doing a little homework on this. And he actually ordered me dinner because I found it for him... lol. So let me reword this.... Thank YOU for the meal!! But yeah, thanx for spending some time to talk about this issue here on your website.
ReplyDeleteMy web-site Best Home Based Businesses